July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Cheniere Energy Inc., whose chief
executive officer was paid more than any other in the U.S. last
year, has pulled plans to issue more stock awards to executives
following a shareholder lawsuit, according to court documents.

Cheniere, which delayed its annual meeting by three months
following the legal challenge, said in a court filing that it
would cut proposals from a shareholder ballot to add 30 million
shares to the pool of awards available for executive bonuses.
The natural gas export company, which has never generated an
annual profit, granted CEO Charif Souki 6.3 million stock units
valued at $133 million in 2013 as part of a $142 million
compensation package.

The 30 million shares that Cheniere had proposed adding to
the pool are valued at more than $2.19 billion, according to
yesterday’s closing price of $73.

Cheniere, based in Houston, is on track to be the first
company to export natural gas produced from the U.S. shale boom.
The company said this week it had signed two new contracts to
export natural gas from a terminal planned for Corpus Christi,
Texas.

An investor alleged in the lawsuit filed May 29 in Delaware
that a February 2013 vote allocating 25 million shares into a
bonus pool, including 6 million awarded to Souki last year, was
miscounted.

The claim led the company to postpone its annual meeting,
now set for Sept. 11, by three months, according to a June 2
filing. Souki stands to lose 89 percent of his 2013 compensation
if the shareholder lawsuit succeeds.